AITA: Boss keeps trying to give me last minute work.

For those of you who do not know reddit terminology, AITA means Am I the Asshole?

So basically, I work for a university as the administrative assistant to the Art and Art History department. Tonight, we have a VERY disorganized exhibit. And no surprise that it is disorganized since it was organized by students. My boss kept asking me to ask the students for dates, and no one knew the dates or details. And, I would ask them on a certain day. Tell my boss I asked, and they didn't respond. And she would ask me to ask them again on the SAME day. Literally hours after I just asked. It was very annoying because everything was very last minute. Once we finally had a set date for the closing reception, she asked me to set up for a student photographer to come take pictures since I also do the newsletter/social media page for our department.

The photo department emailed me Friday and said they did not have any students, but we could pay $300 for a pro. I sent the email to my boss, and she said she would check the budget. She never responded. The photo department emailed me again today (Monday), so I forwarded it to her, and she finally said we don't have the money. Then asked me (LAST MINUTE) if I would stay after work to take photos for the event after mentioning the old administrative assistant used to do it. First of all, with what camera? I have an old dusty LG stylo. It's not made for taking pictures. Second of all, why would you ask me 4 hours before the event to work overtime (which I wouldn't even get paid for)? So, yeah, I promptly told her no even though technically I could make the time if I wanted to. It's more about the principle of the matter.

This, however, is the second time she has asked me for something super last minute. The first time, she wanted me to read 100+ pages of a document, and then email her a summary in a day and a half so she could submit it. I had to explain to her that I had no prior knowledge of the information, and it would take me longer than a day to read that information and understand it enough to be able to summarize it for the every day person. After I said that, she said she would just do it herself. Then two days later, 10 minutes before I leave, she asks me if I can do it instead and give her something the next week.

So yeah, am I the asshole for refusing to help take the photos and trying to set boundaries with my boss?

Quote from TheBotter

NTA.

Couple of things I would say on it.

1st, only reason to EVER do last minute or extra work is if you're getting appropriately compensated for it or if it's with a higher up that will remember what you've done and you'll have some get back later from it.

2nd, if this was a one off sure do it as it might reflect well later in promotions, time off, bonuses, recommendations or favors of any kind. But since it's becoming a habit you can tell this isn't that type of deal. The boss is taking advantage and likely not compensating you in a proper way and likely passing the extra work you do as her solving those issue rather than you to her. I mean it wouldn't surprise me if something went wrong and you got blamed for it even though it was something you weren't supposed to be doing anyway.

No one's gonna thank you for this work, it's not gonna advance your position and really all it's doing is bailing out a person clearly coasting and passing on the work they were too lazy to do onto other people.

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Yeah, I agree.

I actually like my boss, but I don't want her to think that giving me last minute assignments that are not even my job is acceptable. I have no problem helping out, but I cannot stand last minute things that could have been resolved. Like, if she had just told me we could not afford it on Friday and asked if I could do it, I would have just adjusted my work schedule to accommodate staying for the event (though I couldn't take pics anyway because my phone is legitimately bad lol). But instead she waited until I was already at work and halfway through my workday to ask. Yeah, no thanks. I am not getting paid enough to go out of my way for unreasonable accommodations.